Writing Blog Hop

This blog post is the result of not being able to talk my way out of doing something. Seriously. You might think you have the perfect excuse to dodge doing the work, but some folk just won’t be deterred. That’d be Frankie Whelan in this case (his blog hop post here). You can find out about his books here.

So without any further delays, let’s crack on with the questions.

1. What am I working on?

I’m currently working on three separate stories that I hope to eventually make into comics. The story that has my primary focus currently is a short story about a moutain climber. It’s still in the very early stages so there isn’t much to it yet aside from the lead character and a couple of scenes in the story.

The second is a story about a young man that has a reality that exists in parallel to ours revealed to him. The creatures that populate that world are quite different from anything he has ever seen before. The story will follow him as he attempts to survive this new reality.

The third is about an outcast mage living among regular people. He has to take action when a war between various magical factions begin to threaten those he cares about.

2. How does my writing differ from others of its genre?

I would like to think that there are unique characters not seen before in other writings. And a different twist on familiar stories. It’s still early days with the writing so I’ve yet to see if the writing measures up to my aspirations.

3. Why do I write what I do?

I enjoy the magic of creating characters and seeing what happens to them in the world they inhabit. There really is nothing quite like writing a story, it’s one of the few truly free things a person can do. Something that didn’t exist is slowly built up by pen or keyboard.

Writing is something that I’ve always done. I can remember writing my own comics and short stories from a very young age. My dad would bring home a box of paper from work so I was never short of something to write on. It was just such a natural past-time for me growing up. It was probably all the gods, monsters and super-heroes that appealed to me then, and still does.

4. How does my writing process work?

Almost without fail, it begins with a character. They appear in my head and slowly reveal parts of their personality and their mannerisms. Then it’s a matter of getting them to explain what it is they want to do.

Once I have a feel for the story, I try and get the major plot points noted down to get a sense of the overall story. The next course of action is to put together the first draft of the story. This will allow me to see where the plot holes are or what isn’t working in the story.

This isn’t going so well with the current stories as the dreaded writers block has put the brakes on any progress. Usually when this happens I’ll move over to another story I’m working on. But this time all the stories are currently at an impasse. Even going back to an earlier point in the story hasn’t helped. So the stories have been put away in the hope that a spark of inspiration will happen while reading a book or watching a movie.

And so here I am doing the blog hop in the hope that putting a blog post together will get the old writing/creative gears turning once again. All finger-crossing and rabbit-foot rubbing will appreciated. 😉